Columnists
Down the rabbit hole
The literary sensation of the season is apparently a book called The Constant Rabbit, by Jasper Fforde. In brief, a…
Talking to a brick wall at the National Trust
Press officers, breathe easy. This is not another column attacking the National Trust. Actually, I tell a lie. It is.…
How to burst the grade inflation bubble
The Tories regard a return to rigorously marked exams as one of their big achievements in education. In 2010, the…
The bottleneck in shipping will deliver an expensive Christmas
Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey looks increasingly uncomfortable as inflation notches upwards from ‘nothing to worry about’ towards the…
Putting the commie in committee
Last month an epidemiologist called Professor Michael Baker described the UK government’s decision to free its people from Covid restrictions…
Your country needs you at the wheel of a lorry
Here’s a patriotic proposal: let’s form a Dad’s Army of lorry drivers, of which the Road Haulage Association reckons there’s…
Is burglary on the rise again?
Long before the official numbers began to rise, back in 2014, it was clear that knife crime was on the…
Don’t pick a fight with the SNP
Since the Holyrood elections in May, the campaign for Scottish independence has been noticeably quiet. But that is about to…
The Spectator’s Notes
On Monday 2 August, the BBC Today programme offered its ‘Countdown to COP26’. For the rest of the month, Amol…
Looking for enchantment
Most social occasions now seem to kick off with a wasted hour or two. The time is spent discussing Covid:…
Everywhere is Somewhere
I’m off. In the week when you may read this, my partner and I will be winging our way to…
An unhealthy app-etite
As I begin, I’m tortured by the doo-do-doo-do of The Twilight Zone’s theme music. I’ve hurtled back in time. Suddenly…
Is it too cruel to throw Lynch into the jaws of US justice?
Be glad you’re not in Dr Mike Lynch’s shoes. A London judge has ruled that the founder of the Cambridge-based…
The Spectator’s Notes
On Tuesday, I chaired a session at Policy Exchange addressed by Tony Abbott, the eloquent former prime minister of Australia,…
Boris’s last shot
Last week there was acute concern in government about the country’s re-opening. Would restrictions need to be reimposed when schools…
The sorry state of the modern apology
I think I would like to apologise for this article in case someone who reads it takes offence. I will…
The Spectator’s Notes
Anyone who thinks Boris Johnson lacks statecraft should pay attention to Dominic Cummings’s attacks on him. They often to seem…
World gone lazy
‘Where’s the car?’ said my wife Alice, interrupting my Zoom meeting on Saturday morning. ‘It’s where you left it,’ I…
The clever radical who led the City’s transformation
It’s a vivid example of unintended consequences that the swimming-pool builders of southern England should owe so much to Sir…
Will England pull out of the World Cup?
I wonder if the moral guardians of our country — the England football team — intend to participate in the…
The tax-and-spend Tories
When you ask a government minister why something hasn’t happened, you get a one-word answer: ‘Covid’. It has become the…
Get ready for the Boring Twenties
Earlier this year, I noted the suggestion (made by an American academic and run with by a swathe of the…
Better to back clean aviation than to punish frequent flyers
Have you been scanning airline websites for exotic destinations to which your double-jabbed status might allow you to slip away…
What did the Romans ever do for us?
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is planning to install a statue of John Chilembwe in Trafalgar Square. Mr Chilembwe…
Don’t count on America’s immigration figures
Having indulged an unhealthy interest in human migration for decades, I’ve been intrigued by how the number of illegal immigrants…
